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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
Timezone: Europe/London
Sunrise: 5:05 
Transit: 12:56 
Sunset: 20:48
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In Evidence

New Comet C/2025 J1 (Borisov) Discovered in May 2025
Detailed information about the discovery of Comet C/2025 J1 (Borisov) and pointers to useful resources to track and observe it. Read more...

Other deep sky objects in Leo
All Constellations »  Leo »  Deep Sky Objects » 

NGC 2903 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo

Below the horizon.  Rise: 10:51 | Tran: 18:46 | Set: 2:46
Alt: -14.87°   Az: 20.03°   Direction: North-North-East

NGC 2903 is a Spiral Galaxy in the Leo constellation. NGC 2903 is situated close to the celestial equator and, as such, it is at least partly visible from both hemispheres in certain times of the year. Given its visual magnitude of 9.07, NGC 2903 is visible with the help of a binocular with a 60-70mm aperture or a small telescope.

The image below is a photograph of NGC 2903 from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2 - see the credits section) taken in the red channel. The area of sky represented in the image is 0.3980x0.3980 degrees (23.88x23.88 arcmins).

Image of NGC 2903 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo star
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DSS2 image of NGC 2903 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (11.94 arcmin) and minor (5.28 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

09h 33m 36s
+21° 23’ 15”
13h 23m 17s
22h 56m 53s

J2000

09h 32m 09s
+21° 30’ 02”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of NGC 2903 in the sky. The first chart has a field of view of 60° while the second one has a field of view of 10°.

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Finder chart for NGC 2903 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo.

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Finder chart for NGC 2903 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of NGC 2903 in different bands of the electomagnetic spectrum (when available), from the B band (445nm wavelength, corresponding to the Blue color), to the V band ( 551nm wavelength, corresponding to Green/Yellow color), to the J, H, K bands (corresponding to 1220nm, 1630nm, 2190nm wavelengths respectively, which are colors not visible to the human eye).

9.75
9.07
6.95
6.33
6.04

For more information about photometry in astronomy, check the photometric system article on Wikipedia.

The surface brightess reported below is an indication of the brightness per unit of angular area of NGC 2903.

23.02 mag/arcsec2

Apparent Size

The following table reports NGC 2903 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of NGC 2903 is a visual representation of it.
11.94 arcmin
5.28 arcmin
22°

Morphological Classification

NGC 2903 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo is classified as Spiral (SAbc) according to the Hubble and de Vaucouleurs galaxy morphological classification. The diagram below shows a visual representation of the position of NGC 2903 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo in the Hubble de Vaucouleurs sequence.

NGC 2903 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo
Visualization of the morphological classification of NGC 2903 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo, Spiral (SAbc).
Credits for the background image: Antonio Ciccolella / M. De Leo / CC BY

Rise and Set Times

Location: Greenwich, UK
Latitude: 51° 28’ 47” N
Longitude: 0° 00’ 00” E
Timezone: Europe/London

Today's NGC 2903 - Spiral Galaxy in Leo rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 68.6°
Max altitude: 59.9°
Azimuth: 291.4°